New England Patriots Defense: Better in 2015?

The Super-Bowl-winning New England Patriots defense of 2014 was one of the NFL’s best, and everyone expected the 2015 Patriots to regress defensively.  It turns out the 2015 Patriots defense was just as good, and may have  been better.

The 2014 New England Patriots’ roster-building plan seemed pretty similar to the 90’s Yankees: got a weak spot on the roster?  Grab your American Express black card and snag the best free agents in the game, and make yourself invincible.

Please refrain from throwing things, you know the analogy fits.

Backtrack to the 2013 season – the Pats went 12-4 in the regular season, humiliated the Indianapolis Colts in the divisional round of the playoffs, 43-22…and then ran into the buzzsaw that was 2013 Denver Broncos in the AFC title game.  More accurately, once ex-Patriot Wes Welker knocked stud cornerback Aqib Talib out of the game on a debatable pick play, there was no stopping Peyton’s record-setting offense.  The Broncos went on to win 26-16.

So instead of New England’s usual let-someone-else-overpay-this-guy strategy, they brought in the big guns – after calling Bill Belichick a jerk on ESPN, ex-Jet Darrelle Revis and ex-Seahawk Brandon Browner joined the team, and safety Patrick Chung was re-signed after a bad season in Philly.  The point?  One injury to the secondary isn’t going to cost the Patriots another shot at a Super Bowl ring, period, end of story.

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How good was the 2014 Pats defense?  We’ll get to the actual stats here in a second, but here’s what you need to know: in 2014, after Jonas Gray and the New England Patriots bulldozed the Indianapolis Colts, they went on a ridiculous six-game streak where they didn’t allow a second-half touchdown.  On average, the Pats allowed 3.8 points in the fourth quarter in 2014, and that’s counting both that abomination of a Kansas City game and the playoff shootout with the Ravens.

Put it this way: once the New England Patriots had your number on offense in 2014, it was all over.  With all the talent on the defensive side of the ball, once Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia had time to make some tweaks at halftime, good luck moving the ball.

And of course, the narrative of the SHUTDOWN CORNER and Browner’s TOUGH JAMS helping Tom Brady win his pinky-finger Super Bowl ring stuck.  It stuck so freakin’ much that when Darrelle Revis signed back with the Jets during free agency, and Brandon Browner’s option wasn’t picked up, the Patriots were doomed.  DOA.

We all know the New England Patriots were one nail-biting bottle-smashing two-point conversion away from their second back-to-back Super Bowl appearance, but the 2015 Patriots defense, the supposed disaster of a unit that was going to sink the squad before the season even started, came off the top rope and played out of their minds this year – and in several ways, they’re just as nasty as last year’s team. Depending on which stats you like best, 2015’s defense is arguably better.

Let’s start with an easy one: yards allowed per game.  Allowing yards is bad, mmmmkay?

(All stats below are from the 2014 and 2015 regular seasons.  Everyone knows that in the playoffs, it’s a one-way ticket to Crazytown, USA, anything can happen, any given Sunday/Monday/Thursday/Saturday, yada yada yada).

2014 Yards Allowed:  5,506 (13^th in NFL)

2015 Yards Allowed:  5,431 (9^th in NFL)

Advantage: 2015 Patriots.

More specifically, how about the passing yards allowed situation?

2014 Passing Yards Allowed:  3,837 (17^th in NFL)

2015 Passing Yards Allowed:  3,851 (17^th in NFL)

Not a typo, even though it looked like the 2014 team was shutting teams down left and right, they allowed just 14 yards less than this year’s team.  Put another way, the 2015 Pats allow less than one passing yard per game more than the 2014 Pats.

Advantage:  Push.

Next up: rushing defense.  The 2015 Patriots let Vince Wilfork and edge defender Akeem Ayers walk in free agency.

2014 Rushing Yards Allowed:  1,669 (9^th in NFL)

2015 Rushing Yards Allowed:   1,580 (9^th in NFL)

Chalk that up to smart drafting, like Texas defensive tackle Malcom Brown, and some slick free agency shopping, like defensive end Jabaal Sheard.

Advantage:  2015 Patriots.

Finally, all that stuff doesn’t mean anything if a team can’t hold ‘em in the red zone.  So which team gave up more points?

2014 Points Allowed Per Game:  19.6 (8^th in NFL)

2015 Points Allowed Per Game:  19.7 (10^th in NFL)

Advantage:  Well, well, well, we have ourselves another push.

How about the fun stuff?  What about sacks and picks and forced fumbles and takeaways?  The BIG PLAYS, the Sportscenter moments, the “This round of shots is on me!” game-changers?

2014 Sacks: 40.0 (13^th in NFL)

2015 Sacks: 49.0 (2^nd in NFL)

DAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM.

Advantage:  2015 Patriots.

2014 Interceptions: 16 (12^th in NFL)

2015 Interceptions:  12 (20^th in NFL)

Finally, one spot where the 2014 Pats were decisively better.  Advantage: 2014 Patriots.

2014 Forced Fumbles: 16 (13^th in NFL)

2015 Forced Fumbles: 24 (3^rd in NFL)

Advantage: 2015 Patriots.

The relationship between sacks and fumbles is a “Well, DUH” kind of thing – if you sack a guy, he’s more likely to fumble.  It’s a Jack and Coke of stats – not complicated, but effective.

Aside from four more interceptions last year, the 2015 New England Patriots were either equal to or statistically superior to the supposedly impregnable 2014 Patriots defense – and that’s not a knock on last year’s team.

With a ton of younger players built up from years of smart drafting on the defensive side, the 2015 Patriots defense took everyone’s expectations going into this season and played tether-ball with them.  Not only were they better than almost everyone thought they had any right to be, but they had the Patriots within a couple plays of a repeat trip back to the Super Bowl as AFC Champions.

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Oh, and about that loss to Denver.  One more thing.

Remember earlier how during their Halo “KILLING SPREE” streak of 2014, the “We’re on to ____” games, we mentioned that the Patriots were on a six-game streak of not allowing a second-half touchdown?

That’s also exactly what they did to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in this year’s AFC Championship.

After two busted-coverage touchdowns from Peyton to tight end Owen Daniels, the Patriots held the Broncos to two field goals from 13:46 in the second quarter until the end of the game.

Brady and the Patriots basically had almost three whole quarters where the defense held the Broncos to six points on two field goals, one of which was a 52-yarder from Brandon McManus.  For almost three quarters, the offense couldn’t put a TD on the board, having to settle for two Stephen Gostkowski field goals of their own.

The 2015 Patriots defense, at the end of the day, not only outplayed the 2014 team, but also gave Tom Brady a chance to take a team with zero running game to the Super Bowl against the Broncos’ undisputed league-best defense in yards allowed, sacks, and pretty much anything else on a stat sheet.

Next: Patriots: NFL Won't Study PSI Data From 2015

The one thing the 2014 squad has that this year’s team didn’t?

A Super Bowl ring.